


The Mirror

by Saheeba



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Make Out Session, Soft Boi Kylo Ben, Understanding Rey, first ever reylo fic, in voice only, inspired by the teaser, unbetaed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-18 14:01:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18701053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saheeba/pseuds/Saheeba
Summary: They sensed each other at the same time, just like always. And just like always there was a breath of silence, in which they regarded one another’s presence as one would their reflection after seeing it for the first time in years. It had only been days since they had technically last seen each other really, yet there was still that body blow of recognition, the shock of reacquainting with the deeply familiar.----A little one-shot based on the teaser trailer.





	The Mirror

**Author's Note:**

> First ever Reylo fic >< and it's way late lol. I based this off the teaser trailer and modified it to fit a possible realistic scenario that I could see happening in IX based on what we can guess at. No need to over describe the imagined circumstances so I just put enough for some context. Please leave a like/comment if you could, and jsyk constructive criticism is fine with me. I'm really hoping to get more involved in Reylo fanfiction so here's to hoping this is my first step to doing just that! Sorry if things are a bit wonky for a while, I'm still figuring it out.

They sensed each other at the same time, just like always. And just like always there was a breath of silence, in which they regarded one another’s presence as one would their reflection after seeing it for the first time in years. It had only been days since they had technically last seen each other really, yet there was still that body blow of recognition, the shock of reacquainting with the deeply familiar.   
Neither Rey nor Kylo spoke at first. For once they couldn’t see one another, the connection being purely mental. She could sense that he was distant yet approaching fast. He was seated and very clearly piloting some type of craft. “How did you find us?” _What do you want?_ She hadn’t the courage to say that last part out loud. She didn’t want to know his wants. But that was no assurance he hadn’t heard, for in this – this thing between them, the line between thought and speech blurred. 

“Did you really think you could hide from me?” the low rumble of Kylo’s voice vibrated through, attempting a condescending tone. “There’s nowhere you can go for long where I can’t find you. I will _always_ find you, Rey.” The last part he murmured almost despairingly, as if admitting to some defeat. Something. There was something in that note, in the grim of his face, and the haunting of his eyes, remote and anguished and beautiful like a mountain peak. 

Something was gravely wrong. Rey almost sneered at herself. Of course something was wrong. Nothing was ever right – for either of them. Unbidden she felt the tingling memory of their hands meeting. That had felt right. She swiftly smothered the sentiment. What mattered was that Kylo Ren meant First Order and First Order meant now everyone on the planet was in danger. 

He was closing in on her fast. The tendrils of their connection, a spidery web, tightened. Rey’s breath sped up as the realization poisoned her like drugs polluting the veins. This was it. She would have to kill him, for he was coming to kill her. 

_**Kill him.** _

This monster, this man, this – something. Over their bond they meet each other’s eyes. Like calling to like. Two disparate pieces of the same puzzle. Darkness and Light. No way out.

_**Kill him.** _

Ten million shards pierced her mind, a cloudy jumble as the Force in her tumulted. Her head ached and she could not grasp the Force inside her. A symphony of strident chords that rebelled at the unnaturalness, the self-destruction. Tremors unsteadied her as she reached for the Skywalker saber, and that’s when she heard it. A whisper in the Force, in her heart. 

_**No one’s ever really gone.** _

Rey stilled. She was the last of the Jedi. A thousand generations lived in her. Generations of power and wisdom, of arrogance and folly. Generations of dividing between the Light and the Dark, and lonely children abandoned to their fate or snared like a meal to satisfy the ambitious. A thousand generations lived in her now. Was she really going to make the same mistake as them? Suddenly she realized she couldn’t do it. Once, when she was small, scouring an abandoned destroyer, she’d encountered a snake in the It had writhed and lashed at her, until in a height desperation, it bit its own tail, poisoning itself, rather than to succumb to the predator. It came to her in that moment, as she stood holding aloft a weapon that had struck down more people in both fury and righteous judgment than she cared to admit, that if she were to befall Kylo Ren, if she were to cleave the softness of his scarred flesh in execution, as so many Jedi had done before - that she might as well be sinking her fangs into herself. 

Suddenly a warmth of purpose steadied her. She felt it as sure as her own heartbeat, pulsing in tandem to the only other soul who was both her reflection and her shadow. She could see his TIE fighter now, racing toward her, sand billowing like his own storm. “Ben,” she said, provoking the merest twitch of the eye and quiver of soft lips. “Let’s end this.”

She saw his eyes widen a fraction before gripping the controllers so hard the leather of his gloves creaked. He increased his sped as she felt the turmoil inside him deepened, more tumultuous than usual and Rey suspected it didn’t entirely have to do with her. 

Silencing their connection, she whirled about-face and took up her stance. He was almost upon her. With a slow glance back that took in menacing contours of fighter, she took off. 

The world nothing but a pumping of sleek legs, the scream of the fighter, and the inescapable tether that linked the two last hopes of the galaxy. He was at her heels, the hum of the ship surrounded her. Now, she thought and drawing from the power of the universe she lifted her entire body into a backward salto, sailing above the black ship in an arc a choreographer would’ve rejoiced. Through the red tinted window raised a pair of astonished eyes, at once both incredulous and satisfied. As if he were a master witnessing the improbable results of his pupil’s turbulent training. 

As if he believed in her strength.

She landed like a loth-cat on the hood of the ship and quickly pierced it with the lightsaber to keep from being blown off by the sheer speed of the fighter. Physical contact made what she was about to do next easier. Slamming one hand down on the roof, Rey channeled the Force from the center of her being into the whole of the ship.

_“Reach out with your feelings. What do you see?”_

Like roots it traveled deep into the mechanics of the ship, traveling over ropes of wire and planes of circuit boards, levers and buttons and durasteel, and with a deep breath she allowed her power to settle and absorb in the whirs of electricity and heat and plasma, like water into soil. Extending from deep within Rey reached out, entangled that energy and mass and twisted it. 

The black behemoth beneath her shuddered and dipped, almost scrapping the ground. Through the string that forever linked them Rey felt Kylo’s disbelief, his mind racing to process what was happening. Pulling the physical body of a ship out of the sky or something wasn’t unprecedented but to manipulate the entire internal workings of a machine? Then she felt his anger explode.

“SCAVENGER!” he roared, thwarted pride and awe warring in his voice. The fighter wavered as he continued to lose control and with an almighty crash it skid along the ground, jolting Rey off onto the desert sand, like a tumbleweed about the wind, the momentum sending her rolling for some yards and by the time she was fully able to orient herself, the fighter had come to a screeching halt.   
He was a storm bursting forth from the access hatch. It felt like he was upon her suddenly, inexplicably. A crackling cudgel rained down upon her and with a deft parry she blocked it and twirled out of the way. It was the first time they had properly set eyes upon each other in the flesh without blaster fire and explosions and considerable distance between them. 

“They’re not here…are they?” she said, referring to his Knights of Ren. She recalled seeing them at their last battle, had glimpsed them from the mouth of the Falcon, beyond the fodder of canon fire and stormtroopers, as her small regiment fought to hold them off long enough to flee. They cleaved to their leader like a shadow, hacking their way through. Kylo rammed one of the side vents into an oncoming Resistance member, slamming him to the ground like it was nothing. At that moment he had looked up and their eyes had met. And then she was in the Falcon and taking off. “You came alone. Why?”

“My Knights are no longer at my disposal,” he said, pivoting for another hit. There was something strange in the way he was fighting. 

It was only then that she registered how dirtied he was. “You’re bleeding,” she blurted, unthinkingly, driven by some unfathomable impulse of feeling. Blood stained his face and from what she could make out his clothes too.

Another strike, another block. It was like the question angered him – no pained him. “I’m surprised your den of thieves and criminals haven’t heard,” he replied through gritted teeth. “That doesn’t bode well for you, since they’ve probably tracked me here already.” They met again in a series of strikes, but Rey’s mind was in a whir at the implications of his words. He’d come from nowhere, alone, covered in dirt and blood, either his own or someone else’s and the chord of his mind seemed even more disturbed than usual. “Ben, she gasped suddenly, “did you – ”

But he had taken advantage of her distraction, and with a deft underhand swipe her saber went flying. He was a giant blur of black and flaring red. Then the red extinguished and before her next heartbeat he was upon her – literally, his giant body crashing into her own, a hulking shadow overtaking a sunspot. A frantic, course, breath-stealing drive sent them sprawling in the sand, rolling with bitter desire for dominance. Something desperate seem to animate him and it frightened Rey, not for threat of violence it posed, but for the answering desperation she felt in her own heart when she looked into those haunted eyes, haunting her with that howling loneliness that groped for its like, its twin.

The two forgot at that moment that they were warriors blessed with the cosmic Force. Reduced down to their basic parts, animals, male and female, and it was male strength that won out in the end. Rey found her body crushed by the solid mountain of Kylo’s flesh, from head to past toe. The cliffs of his shoulders so dwarfed the frail span of hers that from an above angle, but for the engulfed wrists and forearms in his grip and the entangled mess of two sets of legs, the desert waif disappeared completely from view underneath the dark warrior. 

“They betrayed me.” Hooded eyes ensnared her, darting between her own hazel ones and down the slender angles of her face as if trying to cast anchor. “On that day when I last saw you – they turned on me as soon as the battle was over. Me, their Master, their comrade!” He roared the last part at her, and the note of hurt in the rage stilled her. He gazed at her through big gulps of air before dropping his head to the crook of her neck. A shudder passed through him to her like electricity jumping wire, terminating in the synchronized thump of their pulses. “People…always leave me behind.”

Suddenly tears pricked at Rey’s vision. All she could see was the strands of black hair that strewn her face and beyond that a yawning desert sky. Oh she knew the depth wretched feeling in that voice, understood it as sure as the scratch marks on the rusted walls of the AT-AT. She had felt every day of her life.

Until he came along. “Ben,” she croaked, turning into him, encouraging him to look her in the face and understand what she offered. “Ben, please.” The grip on her forearms tightened as he lifted his head. What she saw enthralled and scared her. “You’d never leave me behind, right?” he murmured sweetly, then kissed her. 

It was all smothering, blistering heat. The plush lips pushed and pried at her own as if he were attempting to merge them, swallowing her squeaks of surprise for his very own. Powerful hips pressed her into the earth, squirming to part her legs, as if he sought to nestle his way inside her by feel alone. To her dismay an answering throb of anxious pleasure rippled from her center. Her body moved, solicitous yet rebellious, not knowing whether to battle the weight on top of her, to flee or to surrender. Oh Maker. Think, she needed to think - but it was so hard with the smacking succulent pull of his mouth on hers. The soft exclamations of uncertainty she was making met were met with breathy groans that, combined with his scorching scent, drugged her senses further into a fog of sweet confusion. 

Gasping for air, Rey managed to tear her face to the side, only for hot kisses to rain down upon the exposed strip of jaw and neck she revealed to him. “Wait,” she gasped distractedly, “Ben, y-you’re not making sense.” If Ben heard her he made no indication. The attack on her neck continued, alluring and tinged with some desperation she had no explanation for but which made her heart ache in sympathy and blood pound in excitement. He’d let go of one of her arms to free his hand up for exploration, caressing the indent of her little waist even as she twisted to dislodge him from her, then reaching up to turn her head back to him, managing to land an insistent kiss on the corner of her mouth. 

“Wait,” she fidgeted. He ignored her. “Stop…I SAID STOP!” In a wave the Force slammed through the figure on top of her with the might of a tsunami, sending him flying, crashing into the sand a short distance away. Rey scrambled to sit up, grasping at the hem of her tunic which had loosened under his…attentions. Beet red she aimed a quivering glare at the man righting himself, angrily wiping off sand from his long face. “What the fuck?” he growled.

“That’s my line,” she squeaked. “You can’t just show up, fight me and then k-kiss me.” Then fearing he’d spot the rose in her cheeks she asked, “What do you mean your Knights betrayed you?” 

Ben’s expression morphed from irritation to outrage. “The bastards turned on me as soon as you left.” The last part was pushed with a vehemence that almost sounded like an accusation. “They turned their weapons on me and so did the remaining stormtroopers. I suppose they thought they could take me down with numbers and surprise on their side. Maybe they hoped your gang had weakened me.” Suddenly and without warning he let out a bark of laughter, the first Rey had ever heard from him. She stared astonished at the sight. The Supreme Leader of the galaxy, or once Supreme Leader, on his knees in the sand head tilted back to the sky. It was not a nice laugh; it was harsh and husky with hurt. He ceased as abruptly as he began. Then that riotous black head fell forward into gloved palms that proceeded to scratch and tear madly at his skull as if he could claw his demons out by hand. “Dammit…God dammit!”

A pang of heartache had Rey rushing to the side of the fallen leader, grasping for his wrists. “Stop that,” she urged, stilling his frantic scramble, and throwing upon her a look of such wild desperation she thought he kiss her again. In the little time that they had known each other – no, Rey realized with a start, they had always _known_ each other – in the little time that they had been aware of one another she’d seen him in everything from grief to rage to hopeful pleading. This was the first time he looked truly broken.

“Was it Hux?” she asked.

“Who else could it be? But I have no fucking idea how he could’ve secured the loyalty of my knights all on his own. No…” a contemplative tone crept into his voice. “There must be more to it than just him.”   
Rey frowned. “But who?” 

“Someone powerful. Someone strong with the Force. Who can manipulate anyone. Someone –

“Someone you’re going to need my help in defeating,” she interrupted, connecting the dots. “You came here for my help. I’ve felt it too, a disturbance in the Force.”

In the next second she found her jaw in a brutal grip. A leathered hand squeezed the back of her head, jerking her closer. It was the Supreme Leader glaring down at her, a mask of coldness in contemptuous lines. “I came here to finish this, Scavenger.”

Rey wasn’t fooled. “If you had wanted to kill me you would’ve fired at me the moment I was in your sight. That or chopped me to pieces. You abandoned that façade pretty quickly.” Her lips still stung and his looked redder than ever. “You came here to work with the Resistance.” And it was about the Resistance, not just her. The brokenness wasn’t just from the Knights of Ren betraying him, costing him his throne; painted reality had fractured into innumerable parts and then reassembled into a new picture to which he could add his brush strokes. But only if he reckoned with himself. An old fear shined in the glisten of his eyes. She recognized in it, from the time when the despairing prodigal son had stood before his father’s proffered forgiveness. The hands on her softened, turned into caresses, seeking comfort. 

“I can’t do it,” he rasped, dropping down to a whisper. “If I do it’ll have been for nothing, wouldn’t it? I’ve done so much. So much to create a new world. So much…” His throat contracted fiercely, the enormity stifling sound. “So much destruction and damage,” Rey finished, watching the skin under his eye spasm as he turned away, like it pained him to hear it. The words were spoken with no thoughtful sparing. “You’ve hurt so many people. You’ve hurt me.”

His arms dropped to his sides, but Rey wouldn’t relent and brought her hands up to cup that long face, angling him back toward her. Their eyes locked, and the Force flared. “But I want to know what you’re going to do now.”

When he tilted forward and took her lips again, Rey knew his answer, and her arms went around him. She’d seen the Light reflected back at her.


End file.
